For the birds

One day, while browsing a local yard sale, I came across a VHS in a plain clear case. It was obviously a VHS, Anyway, it had "Hotspot the dog: for the birds" messily scrawled on it in black Sharpie marker. I've never heard of this movie! I had to have it. I asked the woman (about in her 40's) in charge how much she wanted for it. She didn't know, it belonged to her son, she said. So she sprinted into her house and brought out a young man, probably in his mid 20's, who was apparently her son. He was very thin, pale, and had deep dark circles around his eyes.

He looked malnourished and like he hadn't slept in weeks. I showed him the VHS, smiled politely at him, and asked, "How much?" He gave me a look like someone who was in shock and terribly nauseous at the same time. "What?! How did that get there? Nevermind. Just take it." I felt kind of bad for him. Maybe he reacted like this because he was feeling ill and he was trying to sleep when his mom brought him outside. I gave him a kind smile and told him I hoped he would be feeling better soon, then said farewell.

I dashed home, eager to view my new VHS. I sat down in front of my TV and popped the VHS into my VHS player and pressed play on my remote. At first, there was a minute of pure static. I could swear that for about a millisecond I saw a face in the static, and it felt like I was being watched.. After the static, The test card for unfinished animations popped up it said "OPTIMUM AND BLACKLIST ANIMATION PRESENT: HOTSPOT THE DOG COMMERCIAL FOR THE BIRDS" then it faded to black. 'The Commercial started out with Ben being a goofball like usual Then he hears a familiar sound. "ICE CREAM TRUCK!!!" He yells gleefully and jumps out of bed, dragging a drowsy and more-than-annoyed Hotspot with him. "Ben, I need my sleep!" hotspot growled. Ben didn't hear him. "ice cream truck, ice cream truck, ice cream truck!!" He ran down the street then it was Hotspot chasing ben it went on for about 5 minutes, with the usual goofiness of Hotspot bumping into objects, yelling "My body! My body! My body!" Ben kept running as the garbage truck safely drove over train tracks. Then Hotspot got tried then ben was in the middle of the train's way then the screen went black a train and splat sound could be heard then it cuts back to Ben now on the ground not moving and then the screen blacks out. I still have nightmares about this tape, sometimes I dream about the face from the static. Sometimes I see it at night when I'm trying to sleep, just out of the corner of my eye. It's always brief, but I can always feel it watching me.

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